One of the most amazing things I had the privilege to see in my days as a rear admiral was the parade of the Lepidopter fleet.
The Lepidopter people are ferocious warriors on defense, and joined the consortium whose fleet I served because we were kind enough to invite them. They had held off several centuries of attempts to conquer their system through their magnificent space force, and it was amazing to see their fleet in formation – instead of a moth going to the light, this was the light, rivaling their golden sun for brilliance at least up close.
It is said on Earth that the flapping of the wings of a moth or butterfly on the west coast of Africa in the summertime can cause a kink in the wind that air begins to rotate around as it travels west on the currents – a kink in the wind caused by a butterfly's wings can therefore cause a hurricane.
Every Lepidopter flotilla, when it “flaps,” can cause a photon burst five thousand times the payload of my fleet's biggest torpedoes. In other words, flotilla for flotilla, the Lepidopter fleet is inferior in size yet superior in ability to every major consortium or imperial fleet in the galaxy. It was and is simply not worth the effort and expenditure it would cost to conquer them.
Dr. Shaaka iMaru had quietly showed up at the parade, representing the survivors of the Uppaaimar – I did not know him or that then, but after he had made himself known to me and my family, he explained that in ancient days, the Lepidopter and the Uppaaimar had been great friends and had done many things together in the alliance that had existed in those times.
“They are the best of friends and the worst of enemies,” he said to me, “and your consortium is wise to have invited them honorably to join. Your consortium's rivals, if they keep good records, will now think twice and three times before attacking any near-Earth position from that angle on the quadrant that passes through the Lepidopter system – and if they don't keep good records, they will learn by doing!”
*This is a pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09